Alphabet’s X CEO, Astro Teller, talks about what makes it successful

Astro Taylor, CEO of X, Alphabet’s “Moonshot Factory,” where the company incubates the nearly impossible, shared a look at what makes for great success and detailed the company’s “Fail Fast” mantra at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 conference on Monday.

Notable companies that started as moon launches from X’s moonshot factory include Waymo and Wing.

Teller noted that

X defines a moonwalk as having three specific components, he said. The first is that he needs to try to solve a big problem in the world. Second, there must be some type of product or service that will, however unlikely, make the problem go away. Finally, there must be some kind of technological advance that will provide a glimmer of hope in solving this huge real-life problem.

“If you were working at “I don’t want you to succeed at this. I want you to get information about whether or not this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and it’s okay if the answer is no.”

Teller went on to point out that if someone proposes a trip to the moon, and it seems plausible, the company is not interested, because that, by definition, would not be a trip to the moon. This doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. This is not what X is looking for.

“If you propose something and it seems really weird, and it has those three components that I just described, and it’s a testable hypothesis, for a small amount of money, we can learn something about whether it’s a little bit crazier than we thought, or a little less crazy than we thought,” Teller said. “If it’s a little crazier than we thought, great, loud, let’s put a bullet in his head and move on. If it’s a little less crazy than we thought, great, here’s a little money. Go try to find the next opportunity to kill him and do it again.”

Teller stressed that in order to make a trip to the moon, you must have equal amounts of audacity and humility.

“If you don’t have really high audacity, you won’t go on these really unexpected journeys,” he said. “But, if you have anything less than truly high humility, you will make this unexpected journey brilliantly.”

The This is because X “kills all the bad ideas very early in the process,” he says.

Teller stated that people can learn to innovate, noting that everyone was creative as a child, but we end up unlearning things that are useful, and perhaps even necessary, for radical innovation. However, he says it’s possible to find these things again by creating an environment where you don’t feel stupid for looking for them.